Backpacking Shepherd’s Pie

[Mina Loomis]

Here is a version for Shepherd's Pie I worked up for our Camp Fire trip to Pecos Wilderness last week. It is for a lot of people so recalculate as needed. Wheatsville is our local food coop. I didn't weigh the whole batch before we used it, but it shouldn't be too heavy with much of it in dried form. We had creek water available.

Everybody liked this a lot. It disappeared very fast. 13 youth ages 11-14. 6 parents/adults.

Backpacking Shepherd’s Pie
Developed for Pecos 2010 Trip
For 16 people

½ cup tomato powder (Harmony House)
2 T Italian seasoning (Wheatsville bulk herbs)
2 crowns broccoli dehydrated
1 onion dehydrated
1 jar freeze-dried corn (Harmony House)
1 jar freeze-dried yellow sweet peppers (Harmony House)
1 jar freeze-dried green beans (Harmony House)
1 T garlic bits (Wheatsville bulk herbs)
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1¼ lb. 80% ground beef, cooked, drained, and dehydrated (“hamburger gravel”)
1 large (13.75 oz.) box Idahoan (or other brand) instant mashed potatoes
½ cup olive oil
⅜ cup Better Than Milk soy milk powder
1 lb. cheddar cheese

At home:
Dehydrate the broccoli, onion, and hamburger.
Place in separate ziplock bags:
Bag 1: Home dehydrated broccoli and onions
Bag 2: Freeze-dried corn, yellow sweet peppers, and green beans
Bag 3: Tomato powder, Italian seasoning, garlic, salt, cayenne
Bag 4: Hamburger gravel
Bag 5: Instant mashed potatoes, Better Than Milk soy powder
Plastic bottle with tight lid: Olive oil
Cheese can stay in its own wrapping until use.

The reason for the separate bags for the vegetables is that freeze-dried things and powdered things rehydrate faster than home dehydrated things. And the meat gets served on the side so that the dish can be vegan/vegetarian. Fresh cheddar cheese normally keeps pretty well on the trail, at least for a few days.

In camp:
2 4-qt. pots with lids, 2 stable stoves
Fill each pot about ½ full of water. No need to filter–it will be boiled. Boil each pot on a stove. Empty the hamburger gravel (bag 4) into a smaller container on the side. After the water boils, put 1 cup of boiling water from one pot into the hamburger gravel and set it aside to rehydrate. Then add the instant potato mix (bag 5) and the olive oil to the water remaining in that pot, and stir thoroughly, and turn off that stove. Into the other pot, stir bags 1, 2, and 3 in order, letting the mix simmer for a couple of minutes after each bag. Then simmer for a few more minutes until all the vegetables are tender enough–up to you. If you are short of fuel, you can take this pot off the stove and just let it sit until the vegetables are rehydrated, but it will take longer that way.

Chop up the cheese into another small pan or container, or onto a pot lid.

Line up the containers as follows:

#1 Vegetable mix
#2 Meat
#3 Mashed potatoes
#4 Cheese

Serve each backpacker from the containers in order:
A layer of vegetable mix in the bottom of their bowl.
A spoonful of meat if they want it (keep the meat spoon out of the other containers)
A layer of mashed potatoes on top
A few pieces of cheese on top of the potatoes if they want cheese

We had 19 people and ran a bit short, so I put 16 people at the heading of this recipe.
Mina Loomis
July 2010

[Joe Kuster]

Sounds great, I'll have to try this at home!

I've been using 4 cheese Idahoan potatoes on top of Mountain House Beef Stew packages (pretty good combo interestlying) but this would give me a lot more flexibility to tweak for taste.

[Kathleen B]

I made this last night to try at work today and cut down the portions from Mina's recipe above to make 1 serving. My guesses seemed to work, because it was very tasty and satisfying and easy. I've listed the amounts I used below, plus some of the substitutions and changes I made based on what I had on hand. The Harmonyhousefoods.com ingredients are listed as HH.

1-1/2 tsp tomato powder (HH)
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 TB broccoli dehydrated (HH)
1/2 tsp onion dehydrated (HH)
1 TB corn dehydrated (HH)
1 TB mixed peppers dehydrated (HH)
1 TB green beans dehydrated (HH)
1/4 tsp garlic dehydrated
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch salt
1 TB beefish bits (HH)
1/2 C Idahoan 4 Cheese instant mashed potatoes
1 thick slice cheddar cheese, broken into pieces

I put the potatoes in a freezer bag, and all the other ingredients, except the cheese, in a separate zip sandwich bag. I added enough cool water to the veggie/seasoning bag to cover several hours before lunch. At lunchtime I added 1 C of boiling water to the potatoes, let them fluff and thicken. I drank the extra water from the now-hydrated veggies/seasonings and then dumped them onto the potatoes to get warm from the potatoes. Then I added the cheese on top.

Easy and yummy. Thanks for the recipe, Mina! This is a nice combination of flavors and definitely a keeper.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Kathleen, that looks great!

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